Marid

{{Short description|Rebellious demon in Islamic belief}} {{About||the village in Iran|Mared (village){{!}}Mared|the IETF working group|MARID}} [[File:Arabian Nights - Letchford - 37.jpg|thumb|Two Marids depicted in Albert Letchford's illustrations to Burton's translation of ''Arabian Nights'' ]] A '''marid''' ({{langx|ar|مَارِد|mārid}}) is a type of devil (''shayṭān'') in Islamic tradition.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Jinn in Islamic texts and culture|url=https://www.academia.edu/30325027 |journal=Academia.edu |last1=Nazari |first1=Morad }}</ref> The Arabic word, meaning "rebellious," is applied to such supernatural beings. As a substantive it refers to a chthonic demon not much dissimilar to the ''ʿifrīt.''<ref>{{Citation |title=ʿIfrīt |url=https://referenceworks.brill.com/doi/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_3502 |access-date=2025-06-19 |language=en |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_3502|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Hans Wehr's ''A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic'' defines ''marid'' as a "demon" or "giant."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wehr |first=Hans |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WTak55pG-_IC |title=A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic |date=1979 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=978-3-447-02002-2 |language=en}}</ref> The term "rebellious ''shayṭān''" is directly mentioned once in the Quran in Surat As-Saffat (Q37:7).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Surah As-Saffat - 7 |url=https://quran.com/en/as-saffat/7 |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=Quran.com |language=en}}</ref> They are also identified with the Persian ''devan''.<ref>Corbin, H. (2014). Avicenna and the Visionary Recital. USA: Princeton University Press. p. 355</ref>

{{Islam}}

== Etymology == The word ''mārid'' (Arabic: مارد) is an active participle derived from the Arabic root ''m-r-d'' ({{lang|ar|مرد}}), whose primary meaning is "recalcitrant" or "rebellious." ''Lisan al-Arab'', the encyclopedic dictionary of Classical Arabic compiled by Ibn Manzur, documents only forms of this general meaning.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.alwaraq.net/Core/AlwaraqSrv/bookpage?book=89&fkey=2&page=5376&option=1 |first=Ibn |last=Manzur |title=Lisan al-'arab (entry for m-r-d) |page=5376}}</ref> The term appears as an attribute of evil spirits in the Quranic verse Surah aṣ-Ṣāffāt (37:7), which references a "safeguard against every rebellious devil" ({{langx|ar|شيطان مارد|shayṭān mārid}}). Cognates from the same Semitic root include the Hebrew words for "rebellion" ({{langx|he|מרד|mɛrɛḏ}}) and "rebel" ({{langx|he|מוֹרֵד|moreḏ}}).

The ''Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic'' lists secondary meanings of ''mārid'' as "demon" and "giant"<ref>{{cite dictionary |first1=Hans |last1=Wehr |first2=J.M. |last2=Cowan |title=A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic |edition=3rd |location=Ithaca, N.Y. |publisher=Spoken Language Services |page=903}}</ref> ({{langx|fa|دیو|div}}). Edward Lane's ''Arabic-English Lexicon'' cites a classical source describing the term as "applied to an evil jinnī of the most powerful class,"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tyndalearchive.com/tabs/lane/ |title=An Arabic-English Lexicon: Derived from the best and the most copious Eastern sources |first=Edward William |last=Lane |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150408021742/http://www.tyndalearchive.com/tabs/lane/ |archive-date=2015-04-08 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> though this distinction is not universally accepted. For example, the MacNaghten edition of ''One Thousand and One Nights'' uses ''marid'' and ''ifrit'' interchangeably (e.g., in ''The Story of the Fisherman'').<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/aliflailaorbook03unkngoog |title=Alif Laila |editor-first=Sir William Hay |editor-last=Mac Naghten |location=Calcutta |publisher=W. Thacker and Co |year=1839 |volume=1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/aliflailaorbook03unkngoog/page/n781 20]}}</ref>

A debated theory by historian Konstantin Jireček believed that ''mārid'' refers to the {{langx|el|Μαρδαϊται|Mardaitai}}, referring to marauder mercenaries during the Arab–Byzantine wars, who were eponymously linked to the Albanian tribe of Mirdita.<ref>{{citation | first=Konstantin | last=Jireček | author-link=Konstantin Jireček | title=Die Handelsstrassen und Bergwerke von Serbien und Bosnien während des Mittelalters | year=1879 | page=16 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZuDS2uOaR6MC&pg=PA16}}</ref>

== Features == Amira El-Zein describes the ''mārid'' as a supernatural being that attempts to predict the future by ascending to the heavens and eavesdropping on angels.<ref name=elZein-2009><br /> {{cite book |last=el-Zein |first=Amira |year=2009 |title=Islam, Arabs, and Intelligent World of the Jinn |publisher=Syracuse University Press |place=Syracuse, NY |isbn=978-0-8156-5070-6 }} </ref>{{rp|style=ama|p= 143}} The Quran references the ''mārid'' in Surah aṣ-Ṣāffāt (37:7), which states that "the lowest heaven is adorned with stars to ward off rebellious devils" (Arabic: شَيْطَانٍ مَارِدٍ, romanized: ''shayṭānin māridin''),<ref name=elZein-2009/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 143}} and in Surah an-Nisa (4:117), which condemns the invocation of "none but a rebellious Satan." In Islamic tradition, similar to the ''ʿifrīt'', the ''mārid'' is associated with a distinct class of beings from the netherworld.<ref>"mārid". In Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Glossary and Index of Terms, (Brill, 2012) doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei2glos_SIM_gi_02894</ref>

A narration attributed to Ali, recorded by Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Qummi, states that when God resolved to create Adam, he punished humanity's predecessors by obliterating the ''nasnas'' (half-formed beings), erecting a veil between jinn and humans, and confined the "rebellious giants" (Arabic: مَارِدَة, romanized: ''māridah'') to the atmosphere.<ref>{{cite book|first=Mahmoud M.|last=Ayoub|title=The Qur'an and Its Interpreters, Volume 1, Band 1|publisher=SUNY Press|location=Albany, New York|date=1984|isbn=978-0-791-49546-9|page=86}}</ref> According to the Maliki Athari scholar Ibn 'Abd al-Barr in his work ''Al-Tamhîd'', the ''mārid'' is a demonic entity more malevolent than ordinary ''shayṭān'' (devils) but less powerful than an ''ʿifrīt''.<ref name="Sulaiman : Raja Segala Makhluk">{{cite book |author1=Humam Hasan Yusuf Shalom |title=Sulaiman : Raja Segala Makhluk |date=2021 |publisher=Pustaka Al Kautsar |isbn=9789795929277 |page=131 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l2ZgEAAAQBAJ |access-date=15 November 2023 |language=Id |format=Bukel |quote=Marid.” - Jika yang dimaksudkan adalah jin yang lebih kuat dan lebih dari itu, maka mereka berkata, “Ifrit.”}}</ref> Al-Jahiz defines a spirit as an angel if it is entirely good, as a ''shayṭān'' if it is wicked, and as a ''mārid'' if the spirit succeeds in moving objects and listening at the doors of heaven.<ref>Fahd, T., & Rippin, A. (2012). S̲h̲ayṭān. In P. Bearman (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Islam New Edition Online (EI-2 English). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_1054</ref>

The ''mārid'' appears prominently in the ''Sirat Sayf ibn Dhi-Yazan'', a pre-Islamic epic. In the narrative, King Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan orders a ''mārid'' to lead him to King Solomon's treasure. True to its rebellious nature, the mārid deliberately disobeys. Sayf later learns from the prophet Khidr that he must command the opposite of his true intent to manipulate the ''mārid''.<ref>Tobias Nünlist ''Dämonenglaube im Islam Walter'' de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2015 {{ISBN|978-3-110-33168-4}} p. 100 (German)</ref>

A study in Egypt notes that, according to Egyptian tradition, humanity's survival depends on divine restraint of demons; if unchained, mārid would annihilate humankind.<ref>Sengers, Gerda. Women and Demons: Cultic Healing in Islamic Egypt. Vol. 86. Brill, 2003.</ref>

Though ''mārid'' and ''ʿifrīt'' are both classified as powerful devils, they differ in disposition. While the ''ʿifrīt'' is characterized as cunning, treacherous, and deceitful, the ''mārid'' is portrayed as less intellectually adept and susceptible to manipulation by humans.<ref>Fartacek, G. (2010). Unheil durch Dämonen? Geschichten und Diskurse über das Wirken der Ǧinn; eine sozialanthropologische Spurensuche in Syrien. Österreich: Böhlau. p. 68</ref>

==See also== * Asura * Genies in popular culture * Ghoul * Sil'a

==References== {{reflist|25em}}

{{Qur'anic people}}

Category:Arabian legendary creatures Category:Demons in Islam Category:Giants in Islam Category:Jinn